The Breamish Valley In The Early Medieval Era

Breamish ValleyThe Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, or 'History of St Cuthbert', a work probably compiled in the mid tenth century, included in a summary of the territory once held by the monastery of Lindisfarne (Lindisfarnensis terrae) 'all the land lying to either side of the River Breamish (Bromic), right up to its source' (HSC, 4; Craster 1954, 178; Hart 1975, doc. 152; Morris 1977, 89, map; Higham 1986, 288-9). It is widely accepted that 'it is difficult to regard this archaic description of the bounds of Lindisfarne territory as being other than authentic' (Hart 1975, 137).

This would inevitably have included the area of the present village of Ingram along with the surrounding township. Indeed O'Brien (2002) has argued that the estate centre was probably located at Ingram itself, although Frodsham has suggested the large enclosed settlement at Greave's Ash, further up the valley, as another contender (Frodsham 2004, 70).

Frodsham (2004, 73-4) has also raised the possibility that the small rectangular buildings set into the defensive bank of the late prehistoric enclosure of Ingram Hill might be explained as the dwellings of early medieval monks, rather than later medieval shielings, in which case such a detached monastic cell would surely have been an important administrative focus in an ecclesiastical land holding.

It must be admitted that no church or chapel which could have provided a focus for such a monastic cell can be identified within this settlement, but worship may conceivably have been conducted in the open air around a stone or wooden preaching cross.